Hamill is seen as the keeper of the Star Wars flame by many fans. His open and sometimes coded disapproval of The Last Jedi reinforced the popular backlash view that Luke’s behaviour was out of character and undermined the entire franchise. The angry fans blame Rian Johnson and Kathleen Kennedy for what they percieve as unforgivable attacks on the core of Star Wars itself. Shock new concept art and revelations from filmmakers from Episodes 7 and 8 have suddenly thrown the entire debate into doubt and may indicated more fan divisions for Episode 9. Does this suddenly change everything?
Phil Szostak is the Lucasfilm Creative Art Manager and author of The Art of The Force Awakens, The Art of The Last Jedi and The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story.
He just reignited the entire debate by posting the image below and basically confirming that Johnson was not responsible for Luke’s divisive behaviour.
He tweeted a picture by Lucasfilm design supervisor Christian Alzmann tagged: “My first image I made for StarWars: TheForceAwakens. This was January of 2013. Luke was being described as a Colonle Kurtz type hiding from the world in a cave… I got a George “Fabulouso” on it to boot.”
This completely changes what may fans think they know and forces everyone to look again at Johnson’s work. But is it that simple?
Yahoo Entertainment producer Adam Lance Garcia asked: “So, correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like Luke in The Last Jedi was fairly consistent with, or at least inspired by Lucas’s vision?”
Szostak replied: “I would say so, yes. I worked on TFA from pretty much the very beginning and was present at the January 16, 2013 meeting at Skywalker Ranch with George Lucas that Christian mentions here (and that is described in greater detail in The Art of The Last Jedi).”
Garcia added: “Well, this puts to bed all of these so-called “arguments” about Rian getting Luke wrong. He followed what George had in mind prior to the release of TFA. Of course, the over-the-top haters will keep living in denial of this fact, but it won’t matter.”
Some agreed but other leapt in to clarify it wasn’t Luke’s withdrawal from the world or loss of hope or even his struggle with the Dark Side that angered so many fans, it was that hugely divisive flashback moment shown in the film.
Tyrell Archer: “It’s not the basic concept of Luke going into seclusion that I had huge issues with. It was the motivation that he considered murdering his nephew in his sleep, then hid out of cowardice while his friends and family needed him.”
The new revealtions may clarify what Lucasfilm’s intentions were and provide context for Johnson’s decisions, but they are unlikely to change many people’s minds about The Last Jedi.